


The Long Way Down

by holyroller



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Human!Outsider, M/M, Modern Retelling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2016-10-26
Packaged: 2018-08-23 04:31:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8314051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holyroller/pseuds/holyroller
Summary: The Outsider is shown a portal to another reality in which Corvo and the important names in Dunwall also reside. He can't resist interfering, but there are some things that not even his power can control. The void operates in mysterious ways, as it goes.





	1. Tripping Eyes and Flooded Lungs

**Author's Note:**

> the desc for this is alternatively: "yo this is the story about how corvo's life got flipped turn upside down so just take a minute and sit right there and i'll tell you about how his daughter brought home a black eyed boy who proceeded to fuck everything up and next thing you know corvo and the police captain were having an affair." 
> 
> Also the human!outsider tag is to be taken fairly lightly. He's not entirely human per se....but more....tangible. 
> 
> I've got no beta for this, and I tend to only re-read things a couple times and edit as I go so if you notice anything is weird please do let me know. And thank you for reading!

There’s a faint hiss in the ambience, signifying that the void was beginning to shift. It would move to adjust itself among the universe. Times changed, destinies were altered, and all sorts of things that would cause the mind of the average mortal to explode occurred within the void. But sometimes she was gentle. No one knew this better than the Outsider. A boy who despite his years, never really stopped being 15 years old.

Youthful curiosity that turned bitter, but curiosity nonetheless was the current flavour that the void was to maintain itself on. The void had received many a sacrifice, but this boy had been something different. And with his curiosity came a taste. It wasn’t unusual to see that Outsiders marked mortals, but the real show came from who they chose to mark. 

The void had seen many a noble come through its doors. It was entertaining to the entity in charge at the time. Watching already powerful men claw at each other for another ounce of power was one thing, but shaping a single man’s destiny and future for the sake of amusement, now that was dedication.

Corvo Attano. A man somehow chosen within 4,000 years. Not even the void had reason as to why this specific man was chosen. It was attributed to the current Outsider’s taste. Taste in what, exactly, was also unknown. And so this boy, shaped every aspect of Attano’s life just to watch the outcome. There was Delilah, a woman who’d meet her choosing around the same time that another man did. 

Daud. And Daud was interesting in his own right. But, this was all a spider’s web with Attano at the centre. It was all meant to end up with Attano’s fate at the front. 

When it was time to mark Corvo, the real entertainment began. 

But, now Corvo had succeeded in challenging everything that the Outsider had expected. Corvo had bested the Outsider. Delilah was currently trapped within a small drawer within the void itself that the Outsider wasn’t very keen on freeing her from because Daud had also surprised the Outsider in his own right. They’d bested the deity. 

So now, left without his mortal playthings, the boy receives a gift from the void.

A window.

Through this window the boy with blackened over eyes watches a different world. Many years ahead of the one Corvo that currently lives in Dunwall with his daughter Emily. In this world, he learns Corvo exists. Through this now closing window, Corvo works as some sort of a security guard for what seems like an entire building dedicated to the playing of games similar to the game of Nancy. The Outsider isn’t very sure what he’s looking at. He’s interested.

In childish curiosity he tries to peer through the window. Instead of getting a better look, he falls through. It isn’t a particularly long fall, but what’s the most impactful isn’t the scratches on his face resulting from the fall, it’s that he fell to begin with.

He tastes the water from the puddle he fell in, he can feel the heat from the sky above on his face. While it wasn’t something completely new, it may as well have been. It had been a long time. 

He manages to find himself amidst the state of shock and brings himself to his knees. He looks out at his hands, they’re tangible as is the rest of him. He finds his feet and looks down at the odd sight. His feet are on the ground. He takes a step and his jaw flies open at the awkward feeling of equilibrium. Mortal life was so foreign to him now. This was nearly incredible. And then he looks up.

Directly in front of him, in bright letters. DUNWALL RESORT. Oh how the void had done him wrong. Still, his curiosity was intact. If Dunwall was here, then everyone he was interested in seeing was near. He steps forward, gaining more confidence in walking with every step as he approaches the large open entrance. Other lights attract his vision. He looks around at the sights of people sitting at tables. Cards in their hands and coins ahead of them. It’s a wonder that mortals managed to turn the game of Nancy into an enterprise.

He continues crossing the brightly coloured room with the carpeting to match. It isn’t until he comes to what seems to be the dead centre that he stops. A man approaches him. 

“A little early to be playing dress-up isn’t it, lad?” the man comes to a stop in front of him. The Outsider doesn’t move, staring up at the man with the same look he bestowed his marked.

“The eye colour contacts, really something there. Still, I have to ask where your parents are,” the man continues. The Outsider feels something rise up in his stomach. Laughter? It’s a foreign feeling. 

“What are you deaf, boy?” the man asks. The Outsider doesn’t particularly like his tone.

“Whether I’m here as a part of your reality shouldn’t be of your concern. Though if you would like to make yourself that more interesting, you’d point me in the direction of Corvo Attano,” it’s a weird feeling to ask for things, the Outsider thinks.

“Corvo…” the man trails off, “you’re one of Emily’s friends aren’t you?”

The Outsider finds himself giving the man a forced version of a smile, “you could say that.”

The man rolls his eyes, “thirteen years old and she’s got the strangest taste in friends…” he gestures forward and the Outsider follows the man to a door located on one side of the building. It’s hidden between a parted row of machines with levers. 

“Emily, someone’s here for you,” the man says as he opens the door slightly. Looking nearly the same as she had when she witnessed the murder of her mother, Emily Kaldwin’s face appears through the small gap in the doorway the man had made.

“And do tell your father I’d like a word with him,” the man adds before walking away.

“Who are you?” Emily stands taller than the Outsider does. She crosses her arms, a slightly annoyed look on her face worthy of an empress.

“An observer,” the Outsider replies.

“You’re weird,” she replies promptly, “why are you looking for me?”

“I need to speak to your father,” the Outsider tilts his head. Emily carries her same personality but none of the regal aspects of her presentation. She dresses in what he assumes is the attire for the common person, as many of the people in the room were wearing similar garments.

“Your eyes are weird,” she replies, “are they just really that dark?”

“Yes.”

“Hm,” Emily’s arms remain crossed and she looks past the Outsider’s shoulders, “what’s your name?”

He doesn’t have an answer. Instead he tries to re-direct the conversation.

“Is your father around?”

Her eyes are still focused past his shoulders and after squinting for a moment she rushes past him. 

“Dad!” the word rings well in the Outsider’s ears. He turns and follows Emily.

“I think he’s lost…” he catches the tail end of what Emily said to her father. 

And sure enough he comes to the sight of none other than Corvo Attano. This world doesn’t particularly suit the man. His own regal posture is gone, instead replaced by the casual demeanor of a man who’s fairly civil. A commoner. He wears a white button up shirt and black trousers. His hair, still nearing his shoulders is cut into layers. His frame was still the same as it was in old Dunwall.

“Do you know where your parents are?” Corvo can speak in this world. That does come as a slight surprise. The Outsider instead holds his arm out. A gesture he assumes will begin what he’s really come into this world to do.

“No,” he’s not wrong. From his early childhood all those thousands of years ago, the Outsider didn’t know his parents. Corvo looks at him curiously before shaking the boy’s hand. The Outsider feels the familiar surge of power. It’s begun. When Corvo retreats his hand, he’s not marked, but the Outsider has figured that this world requires more diligence. He’d been forced into doing what he’d wanted with his own two hands. Corvo’s mark will appear soon enough. The wheels are in motion.

The Outsider turns and walks away. Corvo calls out for him and the Outsider pays the man no mind. He reaches the outside of the Dunwall Resort and heads out towards the streets. He turns into an alley. He hopes he exists as strongly in this world as he does in old Dunwall. A shrine to him shouldn’t be too hard to locate, he thinks.

Instead, he’s met with the rough end of a detached wooden plank. He staggers backwards, the feeling of pain too much for him to bear at the moment. He doesn’t recognize the feeling and it’s overwhelming. He feels hands begin to pat him down. A woman screams and he shuts his eyes. He hears sirens for a moment before a series of footsteps both rush and approach him. By the void, this new world was too much.

He opens his eyes again to the sound of a woman’s voice, “hey,” she says softly, “are you alright?”

“No,” a surge of annoyance rushed through him. Another foreign emotion. He turns to look at the woman and her face intrigues him. He knows her. Not personally, but he knows the dark hair and dark complexion. He knows who she trained under.

“We can call you the paramedics they-” he grabs at her hair and yanks as hard as he can before trying to claw at the remainder of her face. She yells and fights back, easily pinning back his frail arms.

“Alright, you’re coming with me,” she hoists him up and drags him back out into the streets. His mind is a bit hazy but he manages to come back to his proper senses when she sits him down in a…carriage? He’s not entirely sure what he’s sitting in. He can’t reach the front side and something roars when she sits. The contraption begins moving and something in his stomach turns. He’d know fear, but this was something else entirely. A wave of terribleness comes over him and he feels something choke up his stomach. He holds his mouth together and holds his stomach. What was this world doing to him?

Eventually the torture device stops and she pulls him out in front of a building. He can’t make out what the building is made of but he smells the lighter scent of cigars and it soothes him somehow. She makes him sit in a chair as she approaches another young man at a desk. The Outsider knows this man too. 

“What’s the matter, Lurk?” the man teases, “a kid too much for you?”

“Shut up, Thomas,” she fires back, “I need the captain to give him one of his infamous talks. You know, keeping the youth safe and all that. And,” she leans forward slightly but he’s still within reach of her words, “his eyes kind of freak me out. They’re completely blackened out. It’s like I’ve seen them before somehow.”

Thomas gives her an incredulous look before standing up and shaking his head, “It’s incredible how effective pulling troublemakers off the streets and giving them a stern talking to has been, I’ll go get him.”

Lurk turns back to the Outsider. She approaches him and crosses her arms, “Look, I bet you think you’re a tough guy, attacking a police officer and all, but let me tell you, that whole life isn’t as rewarding as you might think. You see what happened to you out there? You’re looking at things that make that seem like a good thing.”

“I’ll take it from here, Lurk,” the voice rings wonderfully in the Outsider’s ears.

He;s dressed in a coat that’s a darker shade of red but there was no doubting it. It was Daud. And it was ironic, how in this world the man had dedicated his life to now serving the type of people he’d taken contracts to assassinate in old Dunwall. A slight smirk finds its way to the Outsider’s face.

The scar on the side of his face, at his eye was just as prominent as it had ever been. The stern look on his face undeniable. In the time that the Outsider had feelings, it amazed him how much like old Dunwall this new world was.

“Do you know who I am?” Daud asks.

“Yes,” the Outsider replies. He knows Daud very well. 

“Right, then. I’m sure you think you’re in some kind of trouble, right?” Daud kneels to be at the Outsider’s line of vision.

The Outsider doesn’t answer. Daud continues.

“Well you’re not, but know that this is your one warning,” the not-assassin’s presence is as grandiose as it had been in old Dunwall. It seemed as if it didn’t matter what world Daud lived in. The man knew how to hold himself in order to intimidate. He continued speaking, “we’re going to take your name, and if you come back because one of my men or women have brought you, well, then you’re going to be in a lot of trouble. Understood?”

The Outsider holds out his arm. A slight grin the Outsider hadn’t seen from Daud since he was a young man appears on his face. An ungloved hand takes the Outsider’s and shakes it. The same surge of energy rushes through the Outsider. Another piece.

“Okay,” Daud lets go and turns back, “Rulfio!” he calls out, “take this boy’s name and then let him go. Lurk, come with me.” 

“Sir,” Lurk says with a nod. The two walk away and the other not-whaler approaches the Outsider with a pen and a pad of paper.

“Well?” Rulfio says. The Outsider instead stands from the chair and walks away. Rulfio goes after him but with a bit of effort, time stops. It was the very least the void could do for him, he thinks. He steps forward into the now changed scenery. Whatever emotional strain he’d carried since arriving to this world was cleansed. The same un-knowing feeling came back to him and only his slight curiosity remained. 

The feeling of emptiness and understanding return as he enters his domain. The void hisses around him, content. The pieces had been set. Now it all surrounded what was to become of Corvo and Daud.

Things were interesting once more.


	2. Leaves Falling Down On The Beautiful Ground

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who read. Here's another bit! 
> 
> No beta for this as well. Thank you for reading!

That night, Corvo dreams of a tower. Large and pristine, standing over a lesser town. He scales it? No, he climbs it. He’s led up a staircase of sorts. Upon reaching the top, he sees his Emily. Dressed in white from head to toe, she stands with her mother. And Jessamine, as lovely as ever, despite there being some other aspect to her personality. She carries herself with more regality than she usually does. Not that Corvo minds.

Upon reaching them, he opens his mouth to speak. He hasn’t gotten a syllable out when another man appears. He wears a gas mask. Within seconds another appears and Jessamine screams. She instinctively reaches and shoved Emily behind her. A surge of rage rises in Corvo and he finds himself already engaging one of them. Within seconds he’s defeated the two strange men and Jessamine addresses him. She only gets half her thoughts out when yet another appears. Corvo turns around and comes face to face with a man dressed in bright red, the only one appearing without a gas mask. He disappears as soon as Corvo got a good look at him. Another man in a mask appears in his place and before Corvo can reach any of them, Emily’s been taken by two of them.

Much to his horror, he turns to watch the man in red shove a sword through Jessamine’s abdomen. Corvo yells for her as the man disappears and she lies on the ground, bleeding from the sever wound. He rushes to her side, kneeling to raise her into his arms. And she speaks to him.

“Corvo,” she says softly. He doesn’t know what to say to her.

“Corvo,” she says again, louder.

“Corvo!” 

His eyes burst open at the sound of her voice. He’s broken a sweat and for a second the sight of Jessamine above him is terrifying. He’d just dreamt of her death. He stares up at her in disbelief for a moment as his chest rises and falls. When he’s seemed to relax, she gives him a curious grin.

“Some dream?”

He shakes his head, reaching up to hold her face in his hands. Her skin is always so soft, “yeah. Remind me to never have sweets before bed.”

“I told you,” she replies, the grin never faltering. 

He shakes his head again. Despite being fully aware it was a dream, he can’t shake the feeling of impending doom. He’s sure that’s a side effect from the awful nightmare. 

“You kept tossing and turning I was afraid I was going to get smacked. You’re a hard man to restrain, you know?” she drops down to rest her head on his chest. His hands move to the back of her head to run through her hair, a rich dark brown that rivaled even the finest silks.

“Sorry,” he replies, sleep coming back to him in slow, soothing waves.

“What was it?” comes a murmur.

“…Emily was taken by strange men,” he starts. She tenses for a moment, the thought also striking some fear into her. Corvo continues, “and you died. More specifically, you were killed.”

“Oh,” she whispers, “that was bad.”

“Yeah,” he doesn’t know what else to say. She leans up for a moment to make eye contact.

“Both your daughter and I are right here,” she assures. He finds himself nodding as she leans up to press a soft kiss to his lips. It still didn’t soothe the feeling of impending doom.

“Just do me a favour?” he asks after a few moments of silence.

“Anything, love.”

“Be careful out there,” he’s not going to pretend he doesn’t know exactly what kind of businesses the Kaldwins partook in. Corvo had been a private investigator. He’d done odd jobs surrounding divorce and worker’s compensation but his big break had come from Jessamine’s father. Owner of the Dunwall Resort and Casino. The man was head of a money laundering operation associated with an infamous crime family. Which one, Corvo never knew. He didn’t ask.

Her father paid him to protect their establishment from external fraud and their associations with the mob. He doesn’t particularly care for those dealings, but for the past few years Jessamine had taken several steps into darker and deeper waters. Now it mattered. 

“There’s no man who can draw and shoot faster than I can,” she assures, “I’m always careful.”

Momentarily assured, sleep comes back to Corvo. He dreams again, but it’s of a room filled with purple lights.

When he wakes up again, Jessamine is gone. She left him a note explaining that she had a meeting to get to and had taken off without waking Corvo. He groggily stands up, hitting the large STOP button on the alarm clock on his bedside table before rubbing his eyes as he heads out into the small hallway. He steps through one of the doors and approaches the small lump in a single bed. 

“Emily, time to get up,” he calls as he reaches it. It’s revealed to be made of stuffed animals. He panics for a moment before he feels weight land upon his back along with some giggles.

“Gotcha!” Emily yells as Corvo tries to maintain his balance. 

“You got me,” he agrees. The panic has subsided momentarily. He gives Emily her privacy to get ready for school. He heads out into an opening in the hallway out to the kitchen and gives thanks to whatever cosmic events caused him to exist in a time where automatic coffee makers existed. Jessamine picked their coffee and it was wonderful. He serves himself some in the first cup he finds, a thick red plastic cup decorated with little goats. The coffee is scorching hot when he tries it and stronger than most brands. It’s the only way he’ll drink it. Jessamine always says it’s going to mess with his nervous system. He’s not sure how. He serves a glass of orange juice next, but he lets that cup sit on the counter.

Emily comes from her room a few minutes later. 

“Ready?” he asks looking up from the mobile phone in his hands. Emily nods and downs the juice. Corvo takes a set of keys from the counter and heads off. He gestures for her to follow as she grabs a bad from the sofa once they cross the living room. Emily’s big enough to ride in the front of the car so she takes a seat and buckles herself in as Corvo slides into the driver’s seat. He’s still wearing the navy blue shirt he slept in and the dark basketball shorts while the shoelaces of his sneakers aren’t even tied.

They head down the road and Corvo feels Emily watching him. At a red light he turns to her, a questioning look on his face. Emily meets his eyes.

“That’s a weird rash,” she comments. Corvo frowns, assuming she means something on his face. He runs a hand over his face and Emily shakes her head.

“It’s on the back of your hand,” she clarifies. Corvo looks at the back of the hand he’d used to rub his face and frowns again. It was a weird rash. A large reddened circle had appeared on his hand. 

“You know the kind of weird things I have to touch at work,” he comments, “maybe a doorknob was contaminated.”

“Ew,” she makes a disgusted face, “what kind of doorknob does that?” 

He pulls up to her school before he gets a chance to answer. Emily unbuckles her seatbelt and opens the car door, stepping out. Corvo shoots her an incredulous look.

“Are you too old to say goodbye now?” he teases.

“Dad,” Emily laughs nervously.

“I love you,” he responds, “have fun.”

“Love you, too,” Emily shuts the door and Corvo watches her walk away. When he looks away, it’s because he’s looking at the strange red circle on the back of his hand. It’s a perfect circle, all red like a rash. He’d have to see if anyone else on the guard at the casino had anything similar.

He returns home and goes straight to bed again. He’s going to be working the late shift. Jessamine’s father was going to conduct one of his special business meetings where he’d require the extra muscle. Aside from sitting along with the security and making sure no one was counting cards, he’d sometimes take up Jessamine’s father on his offers for added security.

Corvo didn’t particularly worry about Jessamine’s family’s dealings when they didn’t directly involve her. 

He lies on the bed, shoes off, thinking of what he’s going to do about the rash on his hand before he falls asleep again.

He dreams of the same purple room, but more vividly. There’s an oddly shaped stone sitting next to a basin. When Corvo approaches the basin it seems to start singing to him. It sounds like twinkling muffled by harsh winds. He reached the basin and looks inside. There’s black water inside.

The longer he stares into the pitch black waters of the basin, the more it feels like there’s something staring back up at him. He backs off, turning away after. The feeling of being watched lingers. When he turns back to the stone and the basin he sees a boy who’s vaguely familiar. Something inside Corvo stresses and his eyes open as the feeling of panic begins to subside.

He can’t remember the dream. He looks over at the clock, telling him it was nearly four PM. He rolls over and sighs. He was supposed to take a short nap and in turn slept for more than 6 hours than he should have. The feeling of impending doom from earlier returns.

His phone on the bedside table has 7 missed calls from Jessamine, two from Emily’s school, 8 voicemails and 5 unanswered text messages. He sighs again. He opens the messages first.

Jessamine’s mad. They’re all from her. She wants to know where he is and why she got a call from Emily’s school. Then she updated him on Emily’s whereabouts. She was at the casino, as Jessamine hadn’t finished the dealings she was involved in. He replies as honestly as he can, weaving as many apologies into it as he can. 

He goes to rub his eyes and nearly shoves his left hand as far away from him as possible. The rash has faded, but in its place there’s…a burn of sorts? Corvo’s not sure what he’s looking at. There’s a black mark on his hand, it’s not bright black, but it’s there. Some circular thing.

He frowns and wonders if the group of youths he’d caught trying to count cards a week ago were somehow involved. Had they cast some curse on him? Did Corvo even believe in curses? His frown remains intact as he heads into the bathroom. There was some medical tape in one of the cabinets he could use. He could always maintain that it was a rash. 

Once he’s showered, dressed and bandaged the mark, he heads out towards the casino. Jessamine’s father always insisted they move to one of the suites in the hotel, claiming it would be better for all of them, as they both worked in the place, Jessamine as a floor manager and Corvo as their private investigator, but it wasn’t the environment they wanted Emily to completely grow up in. Instead they lived in a small home a few blocks away. 

It doesn’t take him long to reach the resort, and when he does, the clock in his car reads 5:43 PM. He enters the resort through one of the side doors, not wanting to encounter any of the Kaldwins just yet. He makes it to his office in one piece, taking his jacket off and finishing the final parts of some paperwork he’d left undone. It’s then that Jessamine enters his office.

There’s a slight pang in his heart at the sight of her and he tries to make it seem like he hasn’t heard. Then she sits on his desk. He forces himself to look up at her, “Jess, hey,” he says softly, defeat in his voice. He braces himself.

“Your daughter’s upset that she had to wait over an hour to get picked up from school,” she says dryly.

“Jess, I’m sorry. I don’t even know what happened. I just- fell asleep,” he tries, and he means it. Her expression softens.

“It’s nothing Candy couldn’t fix. They’re upstairs in the suites somewhere. Candy’s cleaning and Emily’s just hanging out,” she scoots closer to him, moving his papers to the side, “are you feeling okay? We don’t exactly need you around tonight. You can go home.”

Corvo frowns, “we?”

She nods, “Yes, we. I’m overseeing this entire business as of next week.”

“Jess,” Corvo’s frown remains in tact.

“You know the other place we have in lower Gristol? My dad’s going to oversee that and I’ll be taking over here,” she says confidently.

“Jess,” Corvo tries again.

“Corvo,” Jessamine says in the same tone he used, “you need to stop worrying. You weren’t this bad when we nearly got raided last month.”

Corvo’s frown softens. She was right. He fully trusted in her abilities and knew that at her peak strength she could take even him down. Still, since he’d woken up this morning, the awful sense of impending doom had come over him and no matter what he did, he couldn’t shake it. 

Still, they’d gone this long without incident. He shakes his head.

“Sorry,” he means it, “I guess I’m still shaken up from the thought of losing you and Emily.”

She smiles softly and reaches out to take the sides of his face in her hands. She gently runs one of her hands down the side of his face before pressing a quick kiss to his lips.

“I love you, you know?” she says softly.

He nods slightly, “Yeah, I love you, too.”

She leans forward and kisses him again, “I know.”

With a sigh she breaks their embrace and hops off of his desk. He watches her head to the doorway and then turn back to the clock hanging on the wall, “I’ll see you up there?’ she asks. He nods.

He watches her shut the door before continuing with the work he’d been doing. The feeling of impending doom had subsided slightly. It was still an anxious tug at his insides, but he could power through the meeting. He was definitely more invested in its security now than before. 

Time flies by him again. When he looks up at the clock again, the meeting has already begun. He’s late by nearly 20 minutes. With a grunt he slips his jacket back on and pulls a concealable weapon from one of the drawers in his desk and rushes out into the lobby. People are playing, drinking, and having a good time. Corvo’s world seems to be running in slow motion. He can’t make it to the stairs fast enough. The feeling has return full force. 

Rushing up the stairs, he swears as he comes to a complete stop. Corvo’s a prideful man and he usually takes a lot of pleasure in being right, but when he comes across two men he knows to be head of security of the resort lying in a small pool of blood at the door in the staircase that lead to the hall the deal was taking place in, the feeling reaches its peak.

He holds his breath as he tries to move their bodies aside so he can step through. His heart had begun racing in a panic at the sight of them. His mind was on Jessamine. He pulls the small pistol from inside his jacket and takes a deep breath. He’d never actually been in any large conflict before. 

He inhales and opens the door. There’s a heavy silence in the hall. As he moves down the empty aisle there’s a scream and a shot from behind a door. Jessamine. Corvo dashes down the hall, taking a final breath before entering the room the sound had come from. His fears are brought to life as he walks in on Jessamine fighting off two men. Her gun is on the ground and is kicking at one man while another tries to restrain her.

Corvo aims for the man she’s kicking and his aim is off, but manages to hit the man in the shoulder. The man staggers backwards long enough for Corvo to lunge forward and grab at the man holding her. Together Corvo and Jessamine manage to break her free and she steps forward to give the man Corvo shot a kick in the head with the heel of her shoe as Corvo dispatches the last man. 

Immediately after Jessamine rushes over to her father, the person who’d been shot. There are tears in her eyes and she cries out for her father to respond to her. She leans down and buries her face in the man’s chest. 

“Jess,” Corvo’s upset, but nowhere near as much as she is, “Jess, we have to go.”

He tries pulling her back, but she wont let go. The feeling of impending doom reaches his peak as a thought crosses his mind.

“Jess, we have to get to Emily.”

Her head shoots up and she rushes past him. Corvo’s world slows down again as Jessamine approaches the door. Another man, wearing something over his face, appears to shoot her point blank in the chest. She falls backwards as the man continues his way down the hall. Corvo dashes to her and within seconds he’s trying to hold her upright. He pulls on the earpiece he has tucked into his shirt, a device meant for only legal operations.

“This is Alpha Zero requesting backup on the Lounge floor. Code 7067 this is not a drill. I repeat this is not a drill,” he manages to get the words out before he breaks into hysterics. Jessamine’s body begins convulsing and she only manages to gurgle out sounds. He doesn’t know what to say. 

His vision begins to blur and he rubs his eyes as furiously as he can. Jessamine gurgles something that faintly sounds like, “Emily.”

“I love you,” Corvo really doesn’t know what to say to her. He watches her shocked eyes roll to the back of her head slightly and he knows she’s left him. He puts her body down as gently as he can before taking off back towards the staircase. He finds it empty and rushes up the steps, three at a time. 

Upon reaching the upper levels he realizes he doesn’t know what room Emily is in. He starts knocking on every door. A few disgruntled guests open the door to him, but he can’t focus on their words. One woman screams at the blood on his clothing. 

Eventually he reaches a room where Emily opens the door. 

“Emily,” he tries rushing forward to her, but she closes the door on him slightly. There’s a terrified expression on her face. He looks down at himself, the blood on his clothing.

“No, baby,” he tries, shaking his head despite the tears now flowing down his face, “this isn’t what you think. Come on,” he gestures for her to follow him outside.

She backs away slightly and shakes her head. The door shuts immediately and Emily screams. Corvo’s mind blanks out with rage as he concludes what had happened behind the door. He rams his side against the door and manages to wedge it open enough for him to pull himself through. He enters to find a sight that rivals that of Jessamine dead in the other room.

The same masked man who shot Jessamine stands with Emily. She’s pressed up against the man’s side, hiding. The man watches Corvo intently, almost waiting. Corvo’s current state of mind doesn’t leave him many clear options.

“Please,” Corvo tries, “don’t hurt her. You got the workers, not the kingpin. I can help you find them.” 

The man tilts his head. The dark hood behind the mask reveals hair probably as long as Corvo’s own.

“Just don’t hurt her, please,” Corvo’s prepared to beg. His hands shake and his heart is beating at the same rate as a mouse’s. 

The man in the mask watches him again. Slowly, a gloved hand raises to remove the mask and Corvo’s mental state takes another blow. The eyes that stare back at him are too familiar. The facial structure, the hair. It makes him take a step back.

Corvo’s watching himself. 

The—whatever this was. It pockets the mask in a pocket of a large coat and another gloved hand brings an unfolding sword out. It raises it behind Emily’s covered head and Corvo lunges forward, grabbing the weapon.

As Corvo’s hand makes contact with the weapon, the duplicate of him disappears. Emily stares up at him with nothing less than pure terror in her eyes. He staggers back as the world comes into focus again and he backs up against the chest of a police officer. 

A weight is brought down on his back. Corvo’s head hits the ground and the man Corvo had bumped into has already placed a set of handcuffs on him. Corvo’s world slows again and he looks back up at Emily’s face, still contorted in pure horror and there’s no one he hates more than himself. 

He’s dragged off by the man who’d handcuffed him and someone else. The last thing he sees is a woman moving to try and comfort Emily. 

He doesn’t remember the car ride to the police station. He doesn’t remember being called all the variations of a monster as he was shoved into one of the temporary cells. He only remembers their faces. Jessamine’s look before she died in his arms. Emily’s look of pure horror. 

He sinks back into a corner of the cell and he cries. He muffles his wails as best he can, but he cries until he can’t maintain consciousness.

**Author's Note:**

> if anyone has any questions feel free to ask, thank you! (:


End file.
